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Post-Standard, The (Newspaper) - February 14, 2005, Syracuse, New York
The Post-Standard Affiliated with SyracuM.com MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2005 O 2005 The Post-Standard SYRACUSE, N.Y. 50 CENTS GOOD MORNING NOT SO SWEET A storm tracking to the east will wug in i air, but colder air near the surface is likely to mean we'll see ice before any rain arrives in Central New York. Tuesday. Complete forecast, D-10 HIGH: 39 IOW: 31 fights The Grommys love Ray Charles rid) Charles, vvhose iegaC) erased boundaries between and generations, received a fitting eulogy Sunday night as his final album, "Genius Loves Company." won eight Gram- mys. Charles' album, recorded in the final months of his life, won album of the year and best pop album, the song ''Here We Go with Norah Jones, won record of the year and best pop collaboration with vocals. Alicia Keys won four, and Usher won three. STORY, PAGE C-l Clock ticks down on NHL season No progress was reported Sunday night by the National Hockey League or the players' association after the sides met with federal mediators in Wash- ington just hours before a week- end deadline to save the season. DNA: Couple claiming 'Baby 81' are his parents DNA test results released today showed an infant boy found amid bodies and rubble after a tsunami struck Sri Lanka belongs to Jemta and Murugupil- lai Jeyarajah, a couple who des- perately fought for his custody, a court official announced. The ruling, based on last week's court-ordered DNA test of the couple and the boy, nick- named "Baby ended eight weeks of uncertainty and drama surrounding the infant, who be- came a sj mbol of families torn apart by the Dec. 26 tsunami Eight others had also claimed the Lawyers advocating for no-fault divorce law The state Bar Association says New York is the only state that doesn't have a no-fault di- vorce law. The attorneys are making a new push to put a no- fault law on the books. HEW YORK, PAGiA-6 Central Square man ts in court for cabin Timothy Jones will be in court again today to battle New York over what he has argued for 13 years is his right to keep his unfinished cabin on his land. NEW YORK, PAGE A-6 Block History in Central New York The site of the rescue of Wil- liam "Jerry" Henry from a Clin- ton Square jail remains one of the most significant places in the history of the Underground Rail- road. Stops on the Road to Free- dom series takes a look at the historic event. STORY, PAGE 1-2 Corrections Call Deputy Executive Editor Tim Burin at 470-2240 to dis- cuss a correction on a news story. Subscription questions? Call 470-NEWS Index Mows.. 04 I-A Comic_____04 Edtoriok A-8 Some____C-8 Sports--------M OS THEPOSI-5TANMW) Shoppers nee Gunfire in Ulster, County Mail Ken Bizzigofli Times Herald Associated Press POLICE LEAVE the Hudson Valley Mall near Kingston following a shooting Sunday. A lone gunman opened fire inside the crowded mall, wounding at least one person before running out of ammunition, authorities said. nc w. Uccziiij 44- o witness says; none dead in spree Staff, news service reports Kingston A gunman dressed in biack opened fire inside a shopping mall Sun- day, wounding a National Guard recruiter and sending hundreds of panicked shop- pers running for their lives, of- ficials said. A quiet Sunday at the Hud- son Valley Mall near Kings- ton, Ulster County, turned into chaos about 3 p.m. when the crackle of gunfire sounded from the suspect's rifle inside a Best Buy store. A 20-year-old National Guard recruiter who had a table set up at the mail was shot in the leg, police said. There was no indication he Paul Fanning, a National Guard spokesman. Witnesses said the gunman, a short husky man with close- cropped blond hair, entered the store and began shooting toward the ground as soon as the automatic doors opened. As he walked through the store he continued shooting, apparently not aiming at any- thing or anyone. Police did not identify the suspect and said earlier reports that the weapon was an AK- 47 were incorrect. There were conflicting re- ports about injuries. Police at first said the only other person who was hurt was someone who was cut in the hand by flying glass or shrapnel. Kristi Dugan, said that her uncle, Steve Silk, 56, had been shot in the knee and hand, and that another bullet grazed his stomach. Silk had been shop- ping in Best Buy with bis 11-year-old daughter, but she was not injured, Dugan said. She was a few feet from the Best Buy entrance inside the mall, she said, when she heard about 10 shots fired in rapid succession and saw shoppers begin streaming out in every direction. "It was just the kind of thing you see in a she said. A woman shouted at her to get out. "She told me to get my kids and go back in the car. She said there was a guy with automatic weapons." The Dost-St3ndard said, "and I looked around and thought it was firecrack- ers." He felt the pain in his wrist and then saw the gun. "I saw blood was coming down m> wrist and m> first concern was to et her out of was targeted, i. oi. Florists start their own run for the roses By Charley Hannagan Staff writer The scene: an old factory, a quick exchange, and every- one scurries off. What sounds like the opening page of a spy novel is actually the daily routine for 14 members of the Onondaga County Florists Delivery Co-op. Members meet at noon to ex- change floral arrangements for delivery in their local neighbor- hoods. Handing off arrange- ments from shop to shop allows florists to deliver more efficient- ly to customers throughout the county. Sunday was the co-op's big- gest exchange party of the year, with to flower ar- rangements changing hands for delivery today, Valentine's Day. "It's always so said Nanette Hayner, the co-op's president and the owner of Whistlestop Florist on Fremont Road, in Manlius. Prior to the co-op's founding by nine florists in 1982, each shop made deliveries all over the county, Hayner said. There was no efficient way, for example, for one florist to make deliveries in Baldwinsville and Bridgeport in the dav If the wasn't home, the delivery person made the long drive a second time, she said. The old system wasted time, staff and gas, Hayner said. Deliveries are the one area that sets retail florists apart from the grocery stores and mass mar- ket retailers that sell flowers too, said co-op treasurer Paul Dan- iels, owner of St. Agnes Floral Shop in Syracuse. Yet, the associated costs make deliveries, by far. the most ex- pensive part of shop operations, he said. The Onondaga County co-op modeled its operations after sim- ilar co-ops in Baltimore and Rochester. Members meet at noon at the old Hoffman Air and Filtration Systems factory on Thompson Road in East Syra- cuse to trade floral arrange- ments. The florists then deliver the co-op arrangements, along with own, to their surrounding neighborhoods. The system saves time and money, members said. The group also buys flowers and some hard supplies in bulk, saving more money for mem- bers. Havner said. Michelle Gabel Staff photographer JANETTE SPRINGER, of the Rao Mattydale Flower Shop, sorts through flowers Sunday at the Onondaga County Florists Deliv- ery Co-op. Participants agree to handle deliveries close to their mun ttnrot fnr nther 5 UPS On planning a cash-conscious wedding. DON'T KISS ME, I'M ALLERGIC Tell your sweetie about your food allergies before you have a reaction to the smooch. PageA-2 VALENTINE POLICE In Saudi Arabia, the religious police are on patrol, looking to stamp out signs of romance. Base closure process Walsh, Clinton, local supporters vow to fight to keep Hancock Field open. By Pedro Ramirez ffl Staff writer Ine iiibi rum 01 now Field stacks up in the next round of naiJJtai} closings' could come within a few days. A preliminary report is due out as early as this week from the Department of Defense showing how well bases fit into the national security mission, Rep. James Walsh, R-Onondaga, said. The report could serve as a good indicator of whether a par- i ticular base ultimately makes the i dreaded list of bases slated to be closed in the Defense Depart- ment's current Base Realign- ment and Closure process. I known as BRAC. The Secretary of Defense's office must release 1 a list of recommendations by j May 16. A local group formed to pro- tect Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Mattydale isn't waitipg ro hear the pews. It wants to the Pentagon 1 that Hancock, home of the 174th Fighter Wing and its F-16 fight- ers, is one of the best bases in the Air Guard and a vital part of 1 the nation's military might. The local group of political 1 and business leaders is working j with the state's congressional i leaders, including Walsh and I WISH, PAGE A-7 Voters in Iraq give control to Shiites ice won Jw pel VCD i ui me popular vote for assembly. l By Tom Lasseter and Nancy A. Youssef Kmght-Ridder News Service Baghdad, Iraq A Shiite Muslim cleric-led political ticket with close ties to Iran swept Iraq's national elections in final results announced Sunday. By winning almost 50 percent of the popular vote, which will give it more than half of the seats in the Iraqi national assem- bly. the United Iraqi Alliance will almost certainly take the na- tion's prime minister post and have a dominant hand in drafting the constitution. The tally confirmed what the initial results suggested that Iraq's majority Shiite population had wrested control of the Iraqi government from the minority Sunnis for the first time in dec- ades. The new government likely will take control within days, but Iraq's disposition toward the U.S. military presence is unlike- ly to change any time soon. Spokesmen for both the Dawa party and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq the two main parties in the Alli- ance said they had no plans to call for a U.S. troop withdrawal. "We reject the occupation but we won't ask them (the multina- tional forces) to pull out until the security situation improves and the Iraqi house can stand on its said Hadi al-Jaburi, a Su- Officials from both parties also said that though they want Islam to be the main source of the national constitution, they will ensure that the document is inclusive of various sects and KMMSHPACEM Analysis: Victory of 48 percent means some power
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